One-fifth Americans prone to psychiatric issues

About 20 per cent of American adults reported having had a mental illness during the preceding year, according to a new government survey.

The figure hits nearly 30 per cent of those in the 18 to 25 age group, compared with 14.3 per cent of patients 50 and older, according to researchers from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

And of the nearly 46 million US adults who reported having had a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder when surveyed in 2010, some 60 per cent didn’t receive any treatment for the condition.

The most common reason for not getting mental healthcare was not being able to afford it.

The researchers noted that although the 20 per cent figure is “relatively high,” just 5% reported having serious issues that interfered with their normal activities. Although more of those with serious mental illness reported receiving treatment, a large proportion – 39 per cent — didn’t receive any mental health services.

The unemployed, Medicaid beneficiaries, and those living below the poverty level were more likely to have mental illness in the preceding year, as were younger patients. Women appeared to be at greater risk than men.

Substance use disorders were more common among those with mental illness than among those reporting no disorders, and the prevalence was even higher among patients with serious mental illness.

SOURCE Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Diabetes monitoring goes remote

Medtronic, a world leader in medical technology, has won an approval from the US regulatory body for the first remote glucose monitor that will let parents check the blood sugar of a diabetic child sleeping in another room.

A bedside monitor features an alarm that alerts the carer to blood glucose changes, thus helping protect against low blood sugar instances.

The mySentry monitor, which costs about $3,000, works with Medtronic’s MiniMed Paradigm Real-Time Revel System, an insulin pump with built-in continuous glucose monitoring.

In addition to displaying blood sugar readings, the device provides information on the insulin pump battery life and amount of insulin remaining.

Since 75 percent of reactions, in which a diabetic’s blood sugar drops to a dangerously low level, occur overnight, this remote/automatic checking could be a boon to parents who will now not have to get several times in the night to their child’s blood sugar levels.

Surgeons ’stay away from end-of-life topic’

A number of surgeon in the US refrain from discussing issues related to the consequences of death during a risky operation, says a new study.

Medical wishes and plans for end-of-life care, called “advance directives,” outline what can and cannot be done if patients are unable to decide for themselves, explained the survey published in the Annals of Surgery.

“(Surgeons) feel the advance directive basically ties their hands behind their back, and they’re not given the tools to get them through the surgery,” said Margaret Schwarze, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

She and her colleagues polled 912 surgeons who regularly perform risky operations 14 questions on how they discuss a patient’s advance directives.

While about 80 percent of the surgeons discussed which forms of life support the patients would like to limit, only about half asked specifically about the patient’s advance directive.

“I think some surgeons just don’t discuss advance directives because they think it’s so irrelevant,” Schwarze said.

UN AIDS program ‘seeing better results’

Better access to drugs is keeping more people living with the AIDS virus, according to a report from the United Nations Aids program (UNAids).

The number of people dying of the disease fell to 1.8 million in 2010, down from a peak of 2.2 million in the mid-2000s, the annual report said.

About 2.5 million deaths have been averted in poor and middle-income countries since 1995 due to AIDS drugs being introduced and access to them improving, according to UNAids.

“We’ve never had a year when there has been so much science, so much leadership and such results in one year,” said Michel Sidibe, UNAids director.

“Even in this time of public finance crises and uncertainty about funding, we’re seeing results. We are seeing more countries than ever before (achieving) significant reductions in new infections and stabilizing their epidemics,” he added.

Enhancing ‘eye magic’

The face that launched a thousand ships probably had a pair of beautiful eyes on it, for it’s the eyes that lend charm to a face – but it’s the curvy eyelashes that enhance the depth of the eyes.

Having said that, it’s no wonder that trimming of eyelashes has a crucial role on the overall appearance. However, before it can be shaped into a lucid, tapered look, it must have just the right kind of thickness. And that is a cause of concern for many since the rate of growth of eyelashes is extremely slow and it could take months for them to be the right size and thickness.

Now, no one, other than fashion models and actresses, prefers to use phony eyelashes or transplants. Fortunately, the medical community has come up an eyelash growth product that works fast.

Then again, any formulation works efficiently with proper diet and the nutrients that help hair grow quickly. A consultation with a hair treatment specialist would go long way in using the hair growth products most efficiently.